Teachers may shudder when they have to work with an ADHD child but it can be a fun and rewarding experience.

Steps

1

Meet with parents to find out more about the child's condition. Is it mild or severe? Do they take medication? What do they best respond to? Do they have and special strengths? Which areas do they struggle with the most?

2

Find out about medications. Is the child on any and when do they take it. Are they expected to take it while at school and if so when? Make sure it is never missed.

3

Have a very clear timetable to the day and week. Put the week's schedule on the board. ADHD kids thrive when there is a clear routine. Their behavior gets worse when things change a lot. Try to follow a particular routine each day at the beginning of the day, before and after breaks, at the end of each day and so on.

4

Have very clear expectations and a clear structure to the classroom. How do they line up? Where do they put their bags? Where are the class rules? and so on.

5

Seat them close to the front of the class or close to where the teacher is most of the time. They need more eye contact and one on one attention than the average child to succeed.

6

Use lots of praise and encouragement for good behavior. ADHD kids respond to it brilliantly. Praise for small achievements not just big ones.

7

ADHD kids need more frequent rewards and punishments. Don't wait till the end of the day or the end of the week to reward good behavior. ADHD kids live in the moment and a day is like a lifetime.

8

Use a rewards system where you can give frequent rewards during the day. Perhaps give the child an awards book and award points for good behavior like sitting quietly at desk for 10 minutes, getting started on tasks, staying on tasks, completing tasks, sharing well with others and so on. Points can then be exchanged for small privileges.

9

Use more praise and rewards than punishments. ADHD kids don't just want attention, they need it. They will do what ever gets it the fastest. make good attention easy to earn.

10

Don't ignore bad behavior. It will get worse, act quickly when it starts to avoid it getting out of control.

11

Use the three step procedure for bad behavior. use the same procedure every time. If the procedure changes every time then the ADHD child will test it every time to see what will happen. They have no internal boundaries so they don't trust external boundaries and have to constantly test them.

Step 1 is awareness, correct the behavior. As soon as the child starts to play up correct their behavior. eg "Johnny, hands to yourself". Avoid saying too much, the less you say the more they hear.

Step 2 if the behavior continues give 1 warning of what will happen if they continue.

Step 3 - take action. The most effective discipline for ADHD is time out. They hate to be still and not get attention. A 5 minute time out works wonders.

12

ADHD teens will respond to time out very well too. A 15 minute time out will work wonders with ADHD teens even though normal teens would see it as a joke. To give you an idea one ADHD teen misbehaved badly on two occasions. One one occasion he was suspended from school and the teen actually said "It was cool I only got suspended it was like I didn't get in trouble at all" on another occasion the same teen got a long time out for doing the same thing and the teen actually said "that was the worst punishment ever". What works for normal teens is not the same as for ADHD teens.

13

Break bigger tasks into smaller portions. ADHD kids and teens get overwhelmed with big tasks they feel they will never complete them and give up. break it down and have them tick off as they complete steps so they can see their progress.

14

Use lots of stimulation in your classroom - visuals, diagrams, intonation is your voice, ask questions, use real life examples.

15

Avoid giving food. ADHD kids become uncontrollable when they have lollies or junk food, but even healthy food like fruit juice can set them off. Avoid giving food to kids for rewards or special days, be careful with class parties and birthday cakes.

16

Keep active, ADHD kids brains work better when they do more sports and activities. Try to get them out for at least 30 minutes per day.